Tamara's+Page

=**incorporating technology into the text classroom...** = **__ Goals for the Lesson __** - Students will be able to identify the intention(s) behind the decision of the redactors of the Talmud to include—sometimes juxtapose—//halachic// and //aggadic// material within the same work (Talmud). - Students will be able to analyze Talmudic texts and draw out key themes and ideas presented in selections from //Ketubot// 61b through 63a. - Students will be able to draw connections and suggest relationships between these different texts. - Students will be able to explain how the Talmud expresses its conception of marital obligations of a man to his wife, the reverse, love in marriage and how learning Torah relates to these issues, through studying selections from //Ketubot// 61b through 63a. **__ Big Ideas for the Lesson __** ** A. ** Halacha: Codifying the Human Experience ** B. ** Aggada: Illustrating the Human Experience Therefore, the Aggada serves to remind the reader (since they’re assumed to be practitioners of the law) that Halacha is certainly informed by human experience and is not removed from reality. And for the reader who wants to develop Jewish Law further, s/he must stay rooted in human experience (as expressed in Aggada) and incorporate it into his/her //halachic// innovations. **__ Essential Questions __** I’ve cut out a good chunk of the lesson but I wanted to give you a sense of where I was going with it conceptually so I included the goals etc. above. Below are the parts of the lesson into which I would incorporate online resources and/or new technology. **__ Introduction/Hook: WORD WEB __**** [6 min] ** Take up HW assignment: Students have been invited to a Wiki Group for their daily homework assignments. The following was their HW in preparation for today’s lesson: [Teacher would combine their words into **__Googledoc__** for all to see/share.] In class today, teacher will upload all the students’ assignments and copy their associative words into a visual presentation using **__wordle.net__** This will allow students to see which words were more prominent/common among students. I decided to use Wiki Group and Googledocs for this activity because it allows students to keep an electronic record of their work and also makes it accessible to other students, so that the community of learning is open to all. I thought about collecting all of the students’ homework and putting it into spreadsheet or maybe using a SMART Board, but I like the Googledoc because it’s easy to open, change and save. No special login or software is necessary. I like the Wiki Groups because they allow (and demand) each student to stand behind his/her words and work. This definitely validates the voices of all students, especially encouraging those who aren’t as participatory in class. Also, both of these resources are familiar to me: last year we used Wiki Groups for a pedagogy class to discuss outside the classroom; I use Googledocs for anything from Shabbat potluck sign-ups to close translations and decoding of the Talmud. I still need to learn how to make sure that the “wordle” makes the words ‘law’ and ‘story’ central. Maybe I need to copy and paste them from each student’s list to make them the predominant words. The most striking thing about the “wordle” is having to consider how some visual representations can aid the learner while others can distract him/her. In other words, I’m not sure if the “wordle” might harm a student and confuse him/her more than it would make the exercise (and the words) come alive. ** … ** **__ TEXT #3: RABBI AKIVA & HIS WIFE (62b-63a) [12min] __** ** “STORY” TIME! ** Read through the story of Rabbi Akiva **__aloud__** and keep in mind the context of this //aggadah//, namely the discussion of the obligations of a Torah scholar to his wife vis-à-vis sexual relations. Also remember that this story is one of many //aggadot// on this page of the Talmud. **__ “Rabbinico-drama” __** (similar to bibliodrama except with rabbinic texts) **__ Blog Post or FB Profile __** : In light of the rabbinico-drama assignment, ask students to submit a fictional **blog post** OR create a fictional **Facebook profile** written by one of Rabbi Akiva’s students. Remember that this student has recently learned of his teacher’s humble origins (i.e. that he was a poor Sheppard with no Torah education) and relationship with his wife (define it how you will based on the narration in the Talmud above). In this blog post or Facebook profile, the student should address the following questions: a) in your (the student of Rabbi AKiva’s) opinion, is Rabbi Akiva treating his wife appropriately?   b) How do you perceive Rabbi Akiva’s wife based on this story? Pious or foolish? Something else? c) What have you learned from Rabbi Akiva in terms of juggling one’s personal life and particularly important relationships alongside commitment to Torah study?  I thought this would be a great follow-up activity for the students to process and unpack for themselves how they understand and perceive Rabbi AKiva and his wife in this story in the Talmud. Both the blog post and the Facebook profile enable students to express their frustrations, questions, emotions and judgments of these Talmudic characters using media that is familiar to them. I think the advantage of the blog post is that there isn’t as much strucuture to it. You can simply ‘rant’, as long as you answer the questions assigned. The Facebook profile, on the other hand, lets the students work within a framework (status updates, wall posts, pictures etc.) to share their thoughts on this story and its characters. I used to have a blog so I have a sense of what it’s like to write about something you believe in and see how others react. Facebook, for better and for worse, is something that I know very well. I guess I wonder what it might conjure up for students to have their ‘real’ Facebook profiles and another totally fictional one. Could that lead to dangerous alias Facebook profiles that incite cyber bullying? What happens to traditional text when it’s translated into contemporary text, not to mention online? Does that enhance the learning of the traditional text or minimize its centrality? Not sure…I could imagine that going both ways. =  = =  = = **other resources...** = > > what's really amazing about this material is that it gives students accessibility to the academic study of talmud and empowers them to draw their own conclusions about the differences in manuscripts. (for example, in this segment there is a discrepancy as to whether a teaching of the rabbis -- "he who saves one life [in israel] is to have saved an entire world" -- applies exclusively to jews or is a general statement about the value of ALL human life. different manuscripts include/exclude the phrase "in israel" and consequently reflect differing conceptions of non-Jews.
 * 1) How do //halachic// and //aggadic// sections of Talmud interact and/or play off each other?
 * 2) In the Talmud’s view, how might a man juggle his desire to learn Torah with marital obligations? Is one of these more pressing than another? If so, why? If not, why not and is he meant to discard one entirely in service of the other?
 * 1) Create a T-chart with “LAW” on one side and “STORY” on another.
 * 2) Make a list of all the words you associate with each (LAW and STORY)
 * 1) Imagine you are Kalba Savua – you originally disowned your daughter and now reclaim her/son-in-law who has become a great Torah scholar.
 * 2) What did you originally disown your daughter when she married?
 * 3) Why did you decide to reclaim your family ties?
 * 4) Imagine you’re Rabbi Akiva’s (RA) wife – you’ve chosen a life of __poverty__ and __solitude__, as your husband is __away studying__ and making __no money__.
 * 5) Why did you decide to send him away to study Torah?
 * 6) Are you ever lonely? If so, how do you deal with RA’s absence?
 * 7) Imagine you’re Rabbi Akiva. You’ve come back to the city with your students to visit your wife.
 * 8) Why did you decide to go back to study after being away for 12 yr?
 * 9) Why did you tell your students “all your/their Torah is hers”?
 * 10) Do you ever miss your wife?
 * 1) **comparing manuscripts of the talmud ONLINE (thank you, daniel roth!) ---**  http://www.jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/talmud/mishna/showmi1.asp?mishnanum=5&pereknum=004&masecet=34&mnusriptnum=1723&p=1&masecetindex=34&perekindex=4&numamud=5&manuscriptindex=1&k
 * 1) **biblical art (thank you, neima!)  http://www.biblical-art.com/biblicalsubject2.asp?id_biblicalsubject=5 **
 * 2) **transforming gemara into values education (thank you again, daniel roth!)--- http://www.yesodot.org.il//Eng/  **